That means no more security patches and updates, leaving you vulnerable to scammers hoping to take over your computer, or malware that quietly loads itself when you visit a questionable website.

How to protect yourself

To protect your Windows 7 PC:

Make sure Windows Updates are enabled in your settings.

Then, make sure you accept the Spring 2019 update.

Your other option is to purchase a Windows 10 upgrade.

But from the "doesn't that stink" file, the fact that whatever you do, you may have less than a year left to use Windows 7.

Unless Microsoft makes a change, it plans to end support for 7 early next year, in 2020, which may have you saying "doesn't that stink?"

Worse, upgrading to Windows 10 currently costs $139
. (The free upgrade offer ended 2 years ago). That stinks too, if you are dealing with a 7 or 8 year old PC, and don't want to invest extra money into it.

Remember Windows XP? Support ended 5 years ago, but some PC users still run it, which is not a safe proposition. They are vulnerable to all sorts of malware attacks.

So keep your desktop or laptop updated and secure, so you don't waste your money.